SimilarWeb, which develops surfer traffic monitoring technology for websites and apps, has been in touch with a number of private equity companies in Israel. The company seeks to raise $30 million at a valuation of $300-350 million, after money. "Globes" selected SimilarWeb, which describes itself as a rating company for the digital sector, as the runner-up in its 2015 startup of the year competition. SimilarWeb explained to the potential investors that it needed the money in order to achieve a specific milestone within a short time, following which it hopes to hold a public offering at a higher valuation.
SimilarWeb's most prominent current investors are South African media group Naspers and Baron Alliance, a British Jew. The company, which has raised $90 million to date, has 300 employees.
SimilarWeb first developed a system for comparing websites, so that website developers could learn from each other. The company began examining website traffic monitoring in 2011, and this is now its main business. SimilarWeb acquired US company Quettra a year ago for $10 million, thereby adding demographic specification and surfers' usage patterns to its traffic measurements. SimilarWeb also previously acquired two other companies for a few million dollars each, and a year ago declared its intention of making one acquisition a year.
SimilarWeb was founded by Nir Cohen and CEO Or Offer. In past interviews following the company's financing rounds in 2014 and 2015, Offer mentioned 2016 as a target year for a public offering. No offering was held in 2016, but it appears that the company is marking 2017 as its new target.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 12, 2017
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